Balthazar
Grand Admiral Balthazar was an NPC created by JGREAD. He was later made an RPC on account of his increasing role in the Roleplay. Balthazar became the temporary leader of the Bat Tribe a total of three times over the course of the RP, and is one of The 4 Supreme Crawler Commanders. Balthazar is a tactical genius, and, though he was barely involved in the Chima Alliance—Crawler Empire War, he played a large role in the Crawler—Ice Hunter War. Biography Early Life Balthazar began as a primitive creature living at the bottom of The Gorge of Eternal Depth. He was eventually evolved into his smarter state when Gible dropped chi orbs into the Gorge. Like the other Bats, Balthazar named himself before exiting the Gorge through the tunnels Bliston had found, and promptly helped to conquer a third of the Outlands. Balthazar was soon ranked up to second-in-command of the Bat Tribe due to his high intelligence and growing personal friendship with the now-King Bliston. Balthazar became one of the two stewards of the Bat Tribe, alongside Bliston's sister Bratta. For the next few months that were the length of years (the RP itself is a floating timeline), Balthazar researched a lot of Chima's war history, particularly naval history, and frequently discussed the strategies of inland generals with Scorpix, before crafting his own strategies for the future. At some point, Balthazar wrote the First Bat Dictionary, giving the Outland tribes the complete inland language. Bat Tribe Leadership After Bliston' disappearance during the Bat—Raven War, Balthazar became the temporary leader of the tribe. Balthazar ordered the increase of bat vehicles from the factories within the mountain. Under Balthazar's guidance, the bats completed their first wave of speedorz. While Bratta was away, Balthazar sat on the throne in Black Fang Mountain, and was visited by a spider ambassador who informed him that the spiders would not be joining the growing alliance between the bat and Scorpion tribes. As the spider left, an Eagle arrived and asked Balthazar if the eagles were at war with the bats or not, to which Balthazar answered that they weren't. As the eagle left, Scorpio and Scorpix arrived, the latter asking about the amount of chi the scorpions would receive, to which Balthazar confirmed that it'd be 50%. Scorpio asked for bat scientists to be sent to Aperture Mesa, and Balthazar agreed, as long as no bats were to be used as test subjects. Scorpio inquired about the spiders, and Balthazar dismissed them as xenophobics, going on to use this word as an excuse to inform the young prince and the general of the existence of the Bat Dictionary. Admiralty Bliston returned to Black Fang Mountain with all of Cavora's chi, flying into the throne room and commemorating Balthazar on his good job leading the Bat Tribe, after Balthazar informed him of the speedor production. Bliston then switched Balthazar's title from steward to Grand Admiral. Balthazar's second-in-command rank remained, but he was now the commander of the entire Bat Fleet. Balthazar thanked Bliston and flew from the mountain, going to Bat Island to take command of the navy. Balthazar received his new uniform upon arrival, and ordered for production to be doubled on the ships. Balthazar was informed of a series of small raids on the Bat Naval Command Center by one thief, and he soon captured the thief, a lone Fox named Klark. Klark explained to Balthazar that he'd been marooned on Bat Island before the bats had claimed it, and that he didn't have purpose anymore. Balthazar then offered to give Klark a new purpose in life: to act as Balthazar's personal bodyguard. Klark agreed, and received weapons for the job. Under Grand Admiral Balthazar's leadership, the Bat Fleet increased in size, becoming one of the biggest fleets, arguably the biggest, on The West Sea. Blockade Although the Bat Fleet didn't end up being attacked by the inland tribes and thus wasn't involved much in the war with the Chima Alliance, Balthazar temporarily had the fleet cover the eagle coast, to form the west portion of the blockade of eagle territory. Balthazar researched the "myths" of the Phoenix through books from the Eagle library, and deduced that the stories of the Phoenix were, in fact, true historical documents. At some point during this time, Grand Admiral Balthazar sent two small scout ships up north to search for the missing Dr. Benjamin, but those ships didn't return. Later, Gorilla diplomats came and spoke to Balthazar on his flagship, The Ascendancy, and requested that Crawler Empire ambassadors be sent to the Gorilla HQ. They also requested Bliston's presence at the HQ. Balthazar agreed, the gorillas left, and Scorponok soon arrived, asking Balthazar about strange fire visions and dreams he'd been having recently. Balthazar displayed his intellect by explaining the most probable meanings of Scorponok's dreams and visions. It was from Balthazar that Scorponok learned that the Phoenix were sending him these fire visions and dreams. During their conversation, Balthazar thought a lot about the earlier request of the gorillas, and realized that it was a gorilla trap for Bliston. Since Scorponok was already planning on seeing Bliston, Balthazar calmly informed Scorponok of the Bat King's location of Gorilla HQ, secretly sending Scorponok on a rescue mission not even Scorponok was aware of yet. Second time leading the Bat Tribe Sure enough, Scorponok's rescue mission would end up being successful, but until then, during the time when Bliston was captured by the gorillas, Balthazar was once again in charge of the Bat Tribe. During Balthazar's reign, the Crawlers built many more vehicle factories in eagle territory, and significantly upgraded their cities, walls, and defenses in The Great Desert and the formerly unclaimed land. After learning of former Bat Tribe 3ic Barney Balhoun's betrayal and defection from the Crawler Empire, Balthazar publicly placed a bounty on his head, dead or alive. Balthazar also secretly asked the eagles to keep a lookout for the fugitive and turn him over to the Crawlers if they found him. Balthazar then ranked Brakket (the former 4ic) up to 3ic, and ranked Badrar (the former 5ic) to 4ic. Balthazar soon flew back to Black Fang Mountain to arrest Bratta, who was Barney's love interest and was just about to defect. It was then that Balthazar revealed he'd been intercepting Barney's letters to Bratta ever since before Barney defected, as well as piecing together information for months. Balthazar ordered the guards to lock Bratta in the prison cave closest to the summit of the mountain, which was high up and therefore as far from the eastern Aperture Mesa as possible. Balthazar then sat on the black throne. He received a message from Ewinus informing him of the gorillas threatening the eagles. Balthazar dismissed the Gorilla attack as futile, and said he'd ask their Crocodile allies to reinforce the Crawler and Eagle defenses around the spire. However, for unknown reasons, Balthazar ended up not contacting the crocs. Expedition into the Unknown Regions Balthazar soon left Black Fang Mountain and returned to Bat Island, before taking the fleet away from eagle territory and sailing far into the unknown regions of the west sea on an exploration and colonization mission to expand the Crawler Empire's reach. Very far from the main continent of Chima and the Outlands, Grand Admiral Balthazar encountered a strange foreign ship called Outbound Flight. Balthazar had a radio conversation with the commander of that vessel who refused to reveal his name and species (though in reality it was a Manta Ray), but unwittingly revealed the existence of an empire on the West Sea. The commander of the scout ship talked about conquering any tribes to the east, so Grand Admiral Balthazar promptly ordered his bats to fire on Outbound Flight, destroying the threat to the Crawler Empire. Balthazar then returned to Bat Island with the fleet, where he was informed that Bliston was rescued and had resumed leadership of the Bat Tribe. Imperial Remnant Leadership Balthazar's third time leading the Bat Tribe was under very different circumstances. Bliston had returned to Black Fang Mountain for only a day before Balthazar received a radio communication informing him that Bliston, Black Fang Mountain, and the Crawler Empire had fallen to the Ice Hunters, so what remained of the Bat Tribe was under Balthazar's command. The pilot also informed Balthazar that he was transporting the rest of the bat royal family in a repurposed Combine Dropship, and that there was an unidentified Scorpion inside with them. Balthazar deduced that the scorpion was Scrin, and spoke to him through the radio, telling Scrin that baby Prince Bernard was to be placed in his care on Bat Island, but Bliston's wife and the freed Bratta could join Scrin if they wished. Soon after Scrin agreed, Balthazar heard a loud impact on the other end of the radio connection, and asked the pilot of the dropship what'd happened. The pilot told Balthazar that the dropship had just been hit by an Ice laser, and that Bliston's wife had fallen into the fog below and froze. Soon after, the pilot told Balthazar that Bratta had decided to go with Scrin. Prince Bernard was then taken safely to Bat Island. Crawler—Ice Hunter War Balthazar ordered all non-frozen bats to fly to Bat Island, where he integrated them into the Bat Fleet. He placed heavy protection at the shore of The Grassy Plains, as the Imperial city there played a crucial role in the Bats' and Scorpions' mainland-sea trade. The special forces bats of Brakket, who'd gone missing, soon arrived and offered their services to the Grand Admiral. The Balthazar Campaign When the Icebear Fleet attempted to attack Bat Island, Balthazar led a successful campaign against them. Balthazar had the bats mine the giant, spiky black rocks from the side of Bat Island, and mount them to the bows of each ship (and the tops of each sub) to spear the Icebear ships. In his first battle with the enemy fleet, Balthazar's brilliant strategy cost the Icebears all of their small ships. This was a revolutionary victory against the Ice Hunters, because Balthazar was able to defeat them without using fire chi, and only sacrificed one single Wing Striker during the battle. Turning the Tide Since Balthazar needed fire weapons to attack the Icebear shipyards (which he'd deduced were just north in the icecaps), so he sent the special forces bats to liberate the fire catapults from the frozen Imperial cities in the Great Desert. During that mission, Balthazar was visited by the Pirates of the West Sea, and made a deal with Captain Lyrix: the Bat Fleet would ally with the Pirates against the Ice Hunters, if the Pirates obtained chi ghost concoctions from the Gorilla jungle for the bats. After the special forces bats returned with the fire catapults, Balthazar led the Imperial Remnant in its second battle against the Icebear Fleet. This battle was even more successful than the first; now that Balthazar had catapults launching flaming boulders, he was able to destroy the Icebears' shipyards and a lot of the large Icebear ships. Despite winning the battle, Balthazar ordered a retreat back to Bat Island when Vulture Gliders and Sky Scavengers unexpectedly arrived and froze many Wing Strikers. Endgame The Bat Fleet regrouped and prepared for their final attack on the Icebears to destroy what was left of their enemies on the sea. The Pirates arrived with the chi ghost concoctions, and a spiky black rock was mounted on the bow of the Pirates' ship, The Sea Slicer. With Gibbs controlling an army of summoned chi ghostBalthazar had them simply overwhelm, ram, and hit the Icebear ships. However, that was only a part of Balthazar's complex strategy, which destroyed most of the Icebear fleet, leaving only seven ships remaining. The Icebear ships scattered through the icecaps. After the battle was won, the chi ghosts suddenly turned on the Bats, but Balthazar revealed that he'd predicted the Pirates would betray them, and so he'd sent a special forces bat to take the concoctions from the Sea Slicer during the battle. Balthazar crushed the small veils in his hand, immediately destroying all the chi ghosts before Gibbs could have them attack the Bats. Balthazar then ordered every ship in the Bat fleet to fire on the Sea Slicer, destroying the ship and killing Gibbs and most of the other traitorous pirates. However, Balthazar had no way of knowing that most of the fox Pirates he killed were the old friends and soldiers of his bodyguard Klark. Because of this, Klark suddenly betrayed Balthazar, stabbing him through the back of his Command chair and through the heart with his spear. Legacy Balthazar was buried on New Bat Island (a landmass he'd discovered during his expeditions) after the original Bat Island was frozen by the Icebears. Although he didn't succeed in completely destroying the Icebear fleet and keeping the icebears from freezing Bat Island, Balthazar's campaign left a huge impact on the Crawler—Ice Hunter War going forward. His destruction of the Pirates also freed all of Chima's tribes from their scourge of the sea. For the next 20+ years, Balthazar's strategies inspired the tactics of Prince Bernard and other Bat tacticians during the West Sea Wars, and the largest ship type in the second Bat Fleet was named the Balthazar-Class Dreadnaught after him. Appearance, Gear, and Traits Appearance: Wears a white Grand Admiral uniform with a small chi harness in the middle of the shirt, at his chest. Weapons and Gear: Chi blaster pistol in his pocket. Personality: Balthazar is a brilliant mastermind in terms of warfare, and the second smartest bat in existence, after Bliston. Balthazar is a cultured bat with a British accent. He is usually calm and collected, but sometimes quick to anger if King Bliston or the Bat Monarchy is personally insulted. Quotes "I am Grand Admiral Balthazar of the Bat Fleet. I have destroyed all of your small ships, and I now approach your fleet with my own. I would like to know why you are targeting Bat Island." "So it's your island now, huh? Well there's something there that belongs to ''us, ''and we're taking it back even it we have to plow through any buildings there!" "In that case, I will appreciate your immediate surrender and removal of your naval forces from the southern West Sea." "Icebears never surrender! Victory or death!!" "Very well." —Balthazar's first interaction with the Icebears. "The...Bat Tribe...will live on...past my time...this...isn't the end for my people.." —Balthazar's last words after being stabbed.Category:Crawlers Category:Bats Category:Protagonist Category:Leader Category:All Articles